The

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...

genus ''Balearica'' (also called the crowned cranes) contains two extant species in the crane family Gruidae: the

black crowned crane The black crowned crane (''Balearica pavonina'') is a part of the family Gruidae, along with its sister species, the grey crowned crane. It is topped with its characteristic bristle-feathered golden crown. It is usually found in the shallow we ...

(''B. pavonina'') and the

grey crowned crane The grey crowned crane (''Balearica regulorum''), also known as the African crowned crane, golden crested crane, golden crowned crane, East African crane, East African crowned crane, African crane, Eastern crowned crane, Kavirondo crane, South ...

(''B. regulorum''). The species today occur only in Africa, south of the

Sahara Desert , photo = Sahara real color.jpg , photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972 , map = , map_image = , location = , country = , country1 = , ...

, and are the only cranes that can nest in trees. This habitat is one reason the relatively small ''Balearica'' cranes are believed to closely resemble the ancestral members of the Gruidae. Like all cranes, they eat

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

reptile Reptiles, as most commonly defined are the animals in the class Reptilia ( ), a paraphyletic grouping comprising all sauropsids except birds. Living reptiles comprise turtles, crocodilians, squamates (lizards and snakes) and rhynchocephalians ( ...

s, and small

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

Taxonomy

The genus ''Balearica'' was erected by the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...

in 1760 with the

(''Balearica pavonina'') as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

. The name is from the Latin ''Baliaricus'' for "of the Balearic Islands". The crane family (Gruidae) is divided into the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Gruinae of

typical crane Typical may refer to: * ''Typical'' (album), Peter Hammill * "Typical" (song), song by MuteMath *"Typical", song by Frazier Chorus from ''Sue'', 1987 *''Typical'', story collection by Padgett Powell, 1991 See also *''Typical Rick ''Typical Ri ...

s and the subfamily Balearicinae of crowned cranes.

Extant species

Fossil record

Crowned cranes seem to have been more widespread prehistorically. Compared to the true cranes, genus '' Grus'', which were always common in the

Holarctic The Holarctic realm is a biogeographic realm that comprises the majority of habitats found throughout the continents in the Northern Hemisphere. It corresponds to the floristic Boreal Kingdom. It includes both the Nearctic zoogeographical reg ...

and adjacent regions, the present genus appears to have had a more Atlantic distribution, ranging into Europe and North America; it is not known from the fossil record of Asia, as none have yet been discovered. *''Balearica rummeli'' (Early Miocene of Germany) – formerly ''Basityto'' *''Balearica excelsa'' (Early–Middle Miocene of France) – formerly ''Grus'' and ''Ornithocnemus'' *''Balearica exigua'' (Miocene of Nebraska)

References

Bird genera {{Gruiformes-stub